


Countdown

by ClockworkDinosaur (orphan_account)



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Angst, Gen, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 13:41:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5419202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/ClockworkDinosaur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Jon is awoken while the other bots are deep within The Vice Quadrant.<br/>Rumors about Crystal Pepsi returning and Vice Quadrant's release date announcement both came within a few weeks of each other and inspired this fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“It worked.” Peter Walter VI breathed as the baby-blue photoreceptors blinked up at him from the table. With a grin, the golden robot faked a yawn as he sat up and looked around.  
“How long was I asleep?” The Jon asked, looking around the lab, so different from the way he remembered it.  
“Not that long, like a few years.” Peter said, watching the robot stand.  
“Years? I missed so much cool stuff probably!” he whined as he located his suspenders on a nearby table. “Where’s Rabbit and The Spine? I miss my brothers!” he said as he adjusted the red suspenders over his shoulders.  
“…We’ve got some things to discuss, The Jon.”

“So let me get this all figured out. Crystal Pepsi came back suddenly, so I came back, yay me! Rabbit’s a girl. Cool, she’s my sister. Hatchworth from the vault is out now because the band had to be a trio, that’s okay. But… They’re all in space now? And I’m not?” The Jon said after Peter caught him up on the past few years.  
“Yep, that’s pretty much it.” Peter confirmed.  
“Why are they in space? I wanna go to space too, can I join them?”  
Peter shook his head. “Communication is spotty at best. I can rarely get in contact with them. Trying to send you up to them would be like trying to throw a rock in the ocean to hit a shark.”  
“That’s a really weird analogy.”  
“Yep. Point still stands though. Sorry, Jon.”  
“It’s fine.” he said with a pout.  
“I promise, next time I’m able to signal the others, I’ll tell them you’re awake, and chances are they’ll make their way back home, just to see you.”  
The golden robot grinned widely and hugged Peter across the desk, much to Peter’s surprise. “Ah, okay, thanks man.” he said awkwardly, patting The Jon on the shoulder.

A few months passed before Peter could contact the ship on which the trio of robots resided. The Jon was watching a movie when he heard Peter call to him from down the hall.  
“Jon! Jon-Jon-Jon, come here, quick!” Peter yelled, and The Jon ran, hair bouncing and steam curling as he barreled into the room. On a computer monitor, The Jon saw his three siblings smiling. Once Rabbit saw The Jon, she screamed.  
“J-J-JON!! Is that youuuu?!” she cried, bouncing and causing the camera on her side to shake. All at once, the three robots on-screen began talking excitedly at once, as The Jon nearly pushed his nose to the monitor, shouting back at them with matched enthusiasm.  
“I miss you all so much! Rabbit you look so pretty! Hatchworth I need to give you a hug, I’m glad to see you’re okay!” The Jon said, barely pausing between his words.  
“Jon! We’re gonna make our way home soon, okay!?” The Spine said, grinning widely at his young brother as the screen began to fade into static.  
“I love you guys!” The Jon said, waving at his siblings’ smiling faces as the connection was lost. The Jon stared at the static for a few seconds before grinning at Peter.  
“They’re coming back home soon.” he breathed with an excited puff of steam.  
“It’ll be quite a few more months.” Peter warned, but even then the happiness and relief softened his voice.  
“I have to get things ready!” The Jon cried as he stood and jogged out of the room.

“Oh no. God no…” Peter whispered as his voice cracked, putting his head in his hands, the computer screen the only light in the room as he pressed clenched fists into the wood of his keyhole mask.

Peter watched the gold robot as he sat on the floor, crayons and drawings spread around him. Tentatively, Peter sat on the floor next to The Jon, folding his long legs underneath him as he watched the bot draw.  
“Hey, Peter, are you gonna draw with me?” The Jon asked hopefully, showing him a detailed drawing of the Earth, with a stylized spaceship streaking toward a star on the planet over the state of California.  
“Um, no, sorry, Jon… Actually I have… I have something to tell you.” Immediately The Jon’s face went serious.   
“It isn’t good news, is it?” he asked.  
“No, I’m afraid it’s not.” Peter replied, unable to look at the robot anymore. With a deep breath, Peter began speaking.   
“Jon… I thought that the soda was coming back permanently. Everyone did, the company said it was… But the demand wasn’t high enough after a while… They’ve discontinued the soda again, and we’re down to our last three cans.”  
“Three cans, that’s only… Less than a week.” The Jon muttered, eyes wide with fear. Peter felt his heart break as he watched the golden bot’s hands begin to shake.   
“Five days, if you’re careful; three if you’re not.” Peter managed to choke out.  
“I can’t go through it again, I can’t. I can’t say goodbye again.” he clenched his metal fists, snapping the crayon he was holding in half. He suddenly opened his hands. “I’m going to shut off. Don’t wake me until they come back. And don’t tell them that I only have a few days. Swear to me you won’t tell them.” The Jon said to Peter intensely.  
“I swear.”

The Jon awoke a few months later with three very excited automatons smiling in his face. With a cry he sat up and tackled his siblings in a bear hug as they all spoke over one another, greetings and words of affection overlapping as steam filled the room.  
“We missed you, kid.” The Spine said once everyone had quieted down a bit.   
“Yeah we did!” Rabbit squealed, “ And now we can be a quartet, just like before, with-”  
“Let’s focus on now, kay?” The Jon interrupted. “Let’s go for a walk or something.”  
“We just got back from space.” Hatchworth said as The Jon stood.  
“Yeaaah, but we have some catching up to do! I don’t want to waste any time, y’know?”  
“It is a ni-ni-nice evening.” Rabbit said.  
“Come on, let’s go!” The Jon sang as he pulled his siblings along out of the Manor.

The Spine watched Hatchworth and The Jon chase birds around the park, smiling as the two bots tried to sneak up on them and ultimately failed.  
“I’m surprised you’re not out there chasing the poor birds too, Rabbs.” The Spine chuckled.   
“And mess up my-my-my skirt? Nahhh…” she joked. “Plus, I’m okay with watching those two dorks play for a wh-while.”  
It was quiet for a few minutes before Rabbit spoke again.  
“I can’t believe he’s back.” Rabbit said, giggling a bit as The Jon ran full-speed into Hatchworth, sending both automatons crashing to the ground.  
The Spine nodded in agreement. “Peter really is an engineering genius, I thought nobody was able to get The Jon’s core to work with just Blue Matter on its own.”  
“Is that what hap-happened? I thought the soda came back.”  
“I-I kinda of assumed Peter fixed him…” The Spine trailed off. “I haven’t seen any ads for Crystal Pepsi or anything.”  
“I’m sure you’re ri-ri-right.” Rabbit said with a nod.  
“What do you say we join them?” The Spine grinned, heading over to where the gold and bronze robots were climbing a tree. With an enthusiastic nod, Rabbit ran to join her brothers.  
The automatons stayed at the park until the streetlights shut off after midnight. All four were covered in grass and energized from running round, boilers nearly dry from all the excursion. Linked arm-in-arm, the robots made their way home together.

“Two more cans, The Jon. You shouldn’t be running around, you’ll run out faster” Peter mumbled, handing the gold robot a soda.

“We should go to the beach today!” The Jon says enthusiastically the next morning to Hatchworth and The Spine, who were sitting in the dining room.  
“Sorry Jon, it’s supposed to rain later.” The Spine said apologetically, looking up from the newspaper he was reading.  
“I don’t mind!”  
“We’re robots.” The Spine reminded him.  
“Riiiight.” The Jon tapped his cheek with a thoughtful expression. “We should do something though.”  
“Like what?” Hatchworth asked as he nibbled on a pancake.  
“I don’t know! Anything fun.” he looked around the room after a moment. “Hey…Where’s Rabbit?”  
“Kitchen. And she’s been too quiet.” The Spine said, giving the doorway a suspicious glance.  
“I’m gonna go say hi.” The Jon said.  
The Jon could feel something was wrong as soon as he walked in.  
“T-t-t-there are only two cans in here.” Rabbit whispered. “Petes didn’t fix your c-c-core after all-all-all, did he?” her voice cracked and she stared at her golden brother with a mix of sorrow and anger. “Why did-did-didn’t you tell us sooner-r-r?” she cried out suddenly.  
“I-I just wanted us to be happy for a while.” he said softly. He noticed the other two bots in the doorway, looking at the the exchange with alarm.  
“H-h-h-how long, The Jon?” Rabbit choked as she glared, oil dripping from her eyes. “How long will two cans las-las-last?!”  
“About three days if I’m careful.” The Jon said sheepishly.  
Rabbit let out a small distressed squeak and stomped out of the room, shaking and pouring steam.   
Hatchworth walked behind The Jon and put his hand on the gold bot’s shoulder.   
“This isn’t how I wanted you all to find out.” The Jon said blankly, staring at the floor. “I wanted us to have a few really fun days before I ran out.”  
“I’ll go talk to her” The Spine muttered, leaving the two youngest bots alone in the kitchen.


	2. Chapter 2

Rabbit sighed a curl of steam, pulling her legs closer to her chest as she watched the ducks swim around the lake at the Manor’s private cemetery. As she heard someone approach, she wiped the black oil from her cheeks in anger.  
“L-leave me alone.” she muttered as The Spine sat next to her.  
“No.” he said simply as he ignored her glare and watched the water. Her glared dissolved as she began crying.  
“Why d-d-didn’t he tell us sooner?” she said, the hurt in her voice unmistakable.  
The Spine sighed. “Think of last night. Do you think we would have had that much fun if we’d known?”  
“N-no…”  
“Absolutely not. We would have been panicking.” The two watched the ducks in silence.  
“I-I-I don’t want to say goodbye.” Rabbit said, voice small.  
“I don’t either.”  
“Do ya think Petes could fix him, up-up-upgrade him or something?” Desperate hope shook her voice as she looked at her brother with wide eyes.  
“He’s been trying for years but you know how Blue Matter is, one mishap and he could blow up the Manor, or completely wipe The Jon’s memories and personality… Our cores are us.” The Spine shrugged and exhaled. “And hey, we shouldn’t be out here when The Jon’s in there. We have to be with him, have some fun, right?”  
After a moments hesitation, Rabbit nodded and stood, helping her brother stand.

The Jon and Hatchworth both stood from the dining room table as Rabbit and The Spine walked in. Without hesitation, Rabbit tackled The Jon in a metal-bending hug.  
“Hows about we go to the park until it rains, then we’ll come back and pl-pl-play video games?” she said with a smile.  
“Sounds good to me, sis!” The Jon beamed as everyone went to go get ready, excitement beginning to buzz in the automaton’s cores.  
Rabbit stopped The Jon before the robot could leave the room.  
“Uh, Jon, I’m s-s-sorry about getting upset with you. Earlier. Y-you know. Yeah…” she stuttered, wringing her hands with nervousness.  
“It’s alright, Rabbit.” he smiled.   
“It’s not. I’m a j-j-jerk.” she said, but relief still flooded her core.  
“I still forgive ya, sis.”

“You only have one more can after this, The Jon. You shouldn’t have gotten all worked up at the park today.” Peter sighed.  
“What can I say? There were puppies.” The Jon joked.  
“Jon… Who knows if I can ever get your core fixed. This… This could be it.”  
“Then I want to enjoy every second to the fullest.”

“I think we should go to the zoo.” Hatchworth said to his siblings as they sat around the living room.  
“Of all the places, the zoo?” The Spine scoffed, raising an eyebrow. “Remember when we were rented out there and had to preform every day?”  
“It sou-sou-sounds fun to me!” Rabbit chirped.  
“I agree!” The Jon nodded.  
“You’re outvoted” Hatchworth said smugly.  
“Oh, alright.” The Spine grumbled as the other three bots cheered. The Spine let their excitement infect him, and he hopped off the couch. “We have to see the giraffes first, okay?”  
“Well, duh.”  
And though The Spine wouldn’t admit it, he had more fun at the zoo than he’d had in a long time, even if The Jon almost got them all kicked out because he’d attempted to set the giraffes free.

“This is it, Jon. Last can.”  
“I know.”  
“You should all stay in today. Just in case…”  
“In case I run out suddenly?”  
“…Yeah.” Peter sighed. “Look, I… I’m really sorry. I will fix your core to work without the stupid soda, if it’s the last thing I do.” Peter awkwardly gave The Jon a quick hug before handing him the last can of soda.

The Spine, Hatchworth, and Rabbit all watched The Jon with worried looks as he walked into the room.  
“You guys should stop staring, it’s creepy.” he said flippantly as he sat on the floor. As he ignored his sibling’s stares, he pulled crayons and paper from underneath the couch and began drawing. After a moment, Hatchworth joined him. The silence was unbroken for a while before The Jon threw down a crayon.  
“Hey, I’m not shut down yet, stop acting like I’ll turn off at any second.” he gave each of his siblings a stern look.  
“S-s-sorry, Th’Jon.” Rabbit muttered. She rolled off the couch and joined her brothers on the floor with a crash of copper.  
After a moment, The Spine joined everyone on the floor and picked up a crayon.  
The silence between the robots was comfortable. There was too much to be said in a short time.

The hours passed quickly.   
The Jon looked at the other robots around him contentedly. With a small grin he put the crayon down.  
“Tell me a story.” he said, laying on his stomach and looking up at his siblings.  
“About what?” The Spine asked, pushing his papers aside.  
“Space.”  
“Hm. Well, while we were in space, we saw some amazing and sort of…inexplicable things, to say the least. Planet-eating monsters, aliens, planets full of deadly creatures…” The Spine looked at all of his siblings as they stared up at him. Rabbit nodded encouragingly.  
“Tell him abou-ou-out some of the stuff we did, Spine!” she said excitedly.  
“If you insist. Let’s see… Well, we’d been flying through empty space for a few weeks, when we realized we could finally see a planet! We decided to stop there, see what beasts could live on the planet…” The Spine began, becoming more animated as the other bots looked on in wonder. Even Rabbit and Hatchworth were quiet, enraptured by the tale.  
As the silver automaton finished the story, The Jon’s head nodded and his eyes slipped closed as if he’d fallen asleep, a faint smile on his lips as his core whirred to a stop.  
With a hitch in his voice, The Spine whispered, “The end” as he lowered his head.  
The Manor seemed much quieter after that.


End file.
